James Harden and the Rockets

James Harden is playing on a LeBronesque level today shooting 11-12 from the field, 3-3 from 3 and 5-6 from the line to go with 5 boards and 11 assists with 7 mins to go while leading the Rockets to a win over the Blazers.

As a Thunder fan I was deeply upset to see him go and angry that he didn't choose to be part of what the had in OKC. He refused to take less money and basically didn't want to be part of that team anymore.

For the season he'S averaging 25.8 / 4.6 / 5.6

He is still a relatively poor defender and needs to have the ball in his hands a lot to be effective but if you take a look at the big picture he seems to have made the right decision.

He has a max contract now, is an all star, maybe the mip this season, the Rockets have a shot at a playoff spot and last but not least, you have to admit he should be a honorable mentioned in the mvp race.

The Rockets are doing relatively good, Asik is a monster on the boards and they have a very young team and a lot of prospects like Parsons who is one of the surprise storys of the season.

Imagine if they manage to grow Patterson, Motiejunas, Morris and even Lin into bigger roles. Maybe some day Royce White will be able to play games for them. They have plenty of trade assets on the team and cap space to offer a max contract to someone. Maybe Big Al or J-Smooth which would be overpaid by much but Houston is a big market team and can efford to pay huge payrolls if they want to.

In the end James Harden is a fantastic player, the Thunder put him in a position where he can shine and he truely does so far and I don't see this trend come to an end.

I'm very excited to see where this team goes this year and what they will do in the offseason!

I'm a Thunder fan as well and I was upset with his decision too, but I guess he wanted to make his own path, not follow KD's. I don't think he should win MIP this year, because I think he's been capable of this for at least a season now, he's just a 1st option now instead of a 3rd option

Agreed. Harden's per minute stats really haven't changed that much. And yes he is scoring more, but it is clearly just because more plays are being called for him when he is on the floor than last year. It would be kind of ridiculous for a guy who was selected to the US Olympic team based on his play in the 2012 season to next year get Most Improved based on his play in 2013. I mean that kind of tells me you weren't paying attention. And that is hard, when, you know, you watched him at the Olympics. Or man the dude would have to really really have improved a lot. LOL

It bothers me when people say Harden wasn't willing to accept less from OKC. ANYTHING that he accepted from them was going to be less, considering his market value and what other teams were going to pay him.

I also get tired of people acting like he hadn't sacrificed anything. He was a #2 pick, who could end up being the best player in his draft class, playing off of the bench as a role player. Last season, he was arguably a top 15 player, playing off of the bench. That's sacrifice.

OKC should've paid Harden. They were making enough money to afford him. They chose for him not to be apart of their future.

I've to agree with IndianaBasketball , And Honestly I don't get why should a 23 years old player accept a pay cut in his first big contract ? I mean if we were talking about 27 or older who has made a lot of money already I would get that he would want to go for a ring ,but that wasn't the case
It was OKC decision ,They chose Harden as the least important peace of their top 4 young player ,they paid KD,Wesrerbrook and Ibaka , didn't ask any of them to take some pay cut to be able to pay harden a little more ,refused to Amnesty Perkins (and they paid him a lot too when they shouldn't )
Why is Harden to be blamed? and now that he went to the Rockets he has been able to show himself ,get paid more ,All Star ,his team will be in the play-offs for the first time since 2009 ,will have the ability to sign a FA this summer who could help them to be a contender

This just shows what kind of a team player chris bosh is. His last season in toronto he averaged 24 pts and 11 rebounds. Those are great numbers and he sacrificed money and fame to be the 3rd option on a champion.

Chris Bosh is more popular now than he was in Toronto. It's not like his all-star appearances have been affected.

Yea, he took a "paycut", but it wasn't that significant. I mean, he's basically getting $110 million over 6 years. I feel like people always overrated the pay cut they took. When you consider there are no state income taxes in Miami, it's not like he lost that much. I wouldn't be surprised if he's actually earning more in Miami than he would've in Toronto.